Panaji: A major air tragedy was averted after a Delhi-bound flight with nearly 200 people on board made an emergency landing at Goa's airport in the early hours of Sunday. The Indigo flight 6E-336 had taken off from Goa when its pilot detected engine failure, following which the aircraft was forced to turnaround to Goa's Dabolim airport.

The flight was also ferrying Goa’s state Environment minister Nilesh Cabral, who said that the engine caught fire fifteen minutes after the plane was airborne at around 1 am. "The pilot immediately shut off the left engine and flew us back to Goa," said the minister who was heading to the national capital for an official meeting. There were around 180 passengers in the plane at the time the incident occurred, Cabral added.